Oscar Wilde's Crucifix: A Biographical Experiment

While a student at Oxford, Oscar Wilde was courting a beautiful Dublin girl, Florence Balcombe, and on Christmas Day 1876 he presented her with a love gift of a golden crucifix. Two years later, Florence surprised Oscar by suddenly marrying another young writer from Dublin, Bram Stoker, the future author of Dracula. Dutch writer Maarten Asscher uses that crucifix as a fulcrum to examine Wilde’s early development as an artist, from a seminal trip to Greece to his whirlwind tour of America and beyond, including real-life encounters with Walt Whitman and Arthur Conan Doyle. Asscher draws on the complete panoply of Wilde scholarship to supplement historical fact with imaginative reconstruction, including a myth-busting account of Wilde’s deathbed in Paris, and a fictional solution to the mystery of the crucifix delivered by none other than Sherlock Holmes.  The result is a convincing and original interpretation of Victorian history, and a literary tour de force.

About the Author :
Maarten Asscher was publisher of the leading Dutch publisher J M Meulenhoff for eight years, and managing director of Athenaeum Bookshop in Amsterdam for fifteen years. He has published more than twenty books including novels, poems, and essays, to critical acclaim. A selection of his essays was translated in the US as Apples & Oranges: In Praise of Comparisons (Four Winds Press, 2015). Oscar Wilde's Crucifix is his first book written in English. He lives in Amsterdam.

Review :
Author Maarten Asscher is the winner of the 2025 Oscar Wilde Society's Wilde Wit Competition as announced in the Times Literary Supplement “A fascinating literary mystery of fin de siècle London, with an intriguing narrative of truth and speculation that links Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Dorian Gray by deftly unravelling the secrets of these characters and the real lives of their creators.” —Jake Arnott, author of The Long Firm and The Devil’s Paintbrush "What Sherlock Holmes does with the crucifix is explained by Asscher at the end of this astonishing and entertaining, but by no means simple biographical quest. 'You have to keep your head in the game,' says Asscher, a publisher with years of experience. 'The greatest challenge is to make the intellectual entertaining, to present theoretical ideas attractively, to present a train of thought in such a way that it can be enjoyed as an anecdote. There should be 'no difference between the pleasure of reading something and the usefulness of learning something.' Oscar Wilde's Crucifix meets this requirement to a large extent." —Vrij Nederland Praise for Previous Works “Beautiful, poignant literature” – De Groene Amsterdammer “Asscher writes compellingly, pointedly and yet empathetically” – De Morgen “Melancholic and erudite” – De Reactor “Ingenious and eloquent”– De Volkskrant “Stylistically strong novel, full of detailed descriptions and wonderfully flowing sentences” – Cutting Edge “Asscher brings his youth to life with precision. Valuable family book” – Algemeen Dagblad “In addition to being witty and original, sometimes also very confrontational.” –NRC Handelsblad